Gemotions

The phone call had come out of nowhere, a curt voice informing Mark that the house was condemned. He’d gone numb. Now, standing on the sidewalk, watching the boarded-up windows, his chest felt heavy, constricted.

He remembered the smell of his grandmother's baking wafting from the kitchen, the echoes of his father's booming laughter. Everything, all the pieces of his past, were contained within those walls.

He felt a sudden, sharp ache in his temples. He needed to leave, to get away, but his feet were glued to the ground, his gaze fixed on the vacant, silent house.